August 2017 NewsletterChanges to Infinite Campus and Tableau Dashboards

Tableau Reorganization & ToolsWe have updated the look and organization of Tableau dashboards over the summer. In addition, Tableau has released new features in the past few months to assist in accessing data reports. Please view this short video on how to utilize these new tools in Tableau to increase your efficiency when analyzing data.

Infinite Campus UpdatesInfinite Campus conducted an updated our system this week which changed the look and feel of Campus Instruction. Detailed supporting documentation of the changes are located here and will be distributed to teachers on August 14th.The structure of the underlying data in Infinite Campus has changed to accommodate this functionality. All Tableau reports pulling in-progress grades are currently not refreshing data and need to be re-written—which could take up to one month.

MAP Assessment PlanGuidance for the 2017-2018 MAP administration is located here. There are two major changes:

Staff Conducting ResearchIf you have staff members conducting research in your school for a graduate program, their research proposal must be approved by the district. Applications for research are located here.

Infinite Campus RightsThe annual Infinite Campus user rights reset will happen on August 16th. Any staff member needing access to Infinite Campus beyond the normal duties of their job code will be to submit a form to regain their access (this is a very small number of staff members across the district). More details are located here.

Online RegistrationAs of August 9, we have 23,878 students registered for the 2017-18 school year--that's a little over 70%! Registration is REQUIRED for all students. It is imperative that we have current contact information and data for families and students. Additionally, federal Title I funding is dependent on registration and the Household Economic Survey.

Qualtrics: Survey SoftwareIn an effort to decrease redundancy in surveys administered throughout the district and increase survey data security, all district surveys will be centrally managed through the Assessment, Data, and Evaluation team. If you plan to administer a survey to more than one school or department in the 2017-18 school year, the survey must be approved and administered through the district survey software* (Qualtrics). District approval is not required for surveys administered by leadership to their own school or department. If you wish to submit a survey for review, please fill out the form located here. Survey Monkey will no longer be an accepted vendor for Des Moines Public Schools. If you are currently using Survey Monkey to administer any surveys or professional development feedback forms, we will be transitioning the platform for that work to Qualtrics. An overview of the Qualtrics survey platform is located here. You will receive more information about Qualtrics along with sign-in information in the next few weeks.*Some externally provided surveys (such as Gallup) will be administered through the vendor’s system.

Public Dashboards AvailableWe continue to expand our offering of data dashboards available to the public. Check them out here!

SRG Support TicketPlease encourage teachers to access their gradebooks right away when they return for the school year. If teachers encounter any issues with their SRG gradebooks, they can fill out a support ticket located here.

Continuous Improvement UpdateLean focuses on the key processes in departments, the services being delivered, and how much of what is being done is value-added vs. non-value added. The district is building a culture where leadership supports and promotes the empowerment of employees while building their problem-solving ability. Our staff will identify wastes (non-valued added tasks) within processes and set out to improve productivity, quality, and customer service. Learn about the work both leaders and staff have been doing here.